Guarding Kaiden
by DemonChild666
Summary: AU. Imperial Prince Kaiden deals with constant abduction attempts on Coruscant. Meanwhile, four Bounty Hunters complete a mission, triggering events that bring them closer and closer to an inevitable confrontation with their pasts.
1. Capture

Summary:

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. I don't own any recognizable characters. I made no money from this

Guarding Kaiden 

_**By DemonChild666**_

_**Chapter 1**_

There were many theories to explain the mysterious disappearance of the High Prince Luke Vader. Some said his father had killed him in a fit of rage, the same way he killed so many others. Some said he had been kidnapped by one of Lord Vader's many enemies, maybe a surviving Jedi. Some, who were more superstitious than others, said that the deity that had given Lord Vader his black magic powers had demanded the young prince as a sacrifice in return.

Lord Vader himself didn't know what to think, except that he certainly hadn't killed his son, as he would undoubtedly remember doing so.

He woke up on the morning of what would have been Luke's eighth birthday in a bad mood, as usual. Vader remembered another morning like this, almost two years ago. He hadn't known at the time, but that was the last time he would see his only son for a very long time, possibly forever.

Vader turned on the holonet terminal so he could listen to the News Headlines while he practicing his lightsaber technique, as he did every day.

Vader quickly destroyed two droids and disabled another. As usual, the news came on while he trained.

What Vader heard made him stop moving in shock, and consequentially, one of his mechanical knees got shot. Vader used the Force to turn off the droids and limped over to the holonet terminal, where the newsreader was still rapidly speaking.

'The Kaminoan Prime Minister Lama Su has signed the official treaty stating Kamino to be now part of the Empire. This means Imperial Citizens, who have enough money, of course, will now be able to legally use the Kaminoan's cloning faculties,' the newsreader said.

'This is Mason Mertanser, of the channel 1145.8 news; we will be right back after these messages,'

An ad for some form of possibly edible breakfast cereal blared out at the room. Vader was already limping out the door.

_Nine years later_

Lucifer Angelwing was a bounty hunter, despite his youth, and he was good at it. On one occasion on Corellia, Lucifer was being paid by the Rebel Alliance to kidnap a Grand Moff who was apparently the worst one in the entire Empire, and that was saying a lot.

Lucifer didn't much care whether the man would invent the cure for some deadly disease the very next day if left alone, just so long as he was paid for this work and not arrested as the rebels sometimes did to bounty hunters and other such outlaws under their pay. Lucifer looked at the sniveling man at his feet in disgust. He flicked the blaster to stun and pulled the trigger.

He set to work dragging the overweight human a couple of kilometres back to his ship, the _Hellrunner._

It took fifteen minutes, but finally, Lucifer made it, only to find that the ship was entirely locked up.

Lucifer's com beeped.

He looked at it, slightly irritated.

When he saw who was calling, he grew even more irritated, which did not bode well for the caller.

He answered the com and laughter came through it, the sort of laughter that is usually heard when one is listening to a small child playing pranks.

Lucifer, who was by now beginning to get angry, started yelling at the com, knowing that it would hurt the sensitive ears of his "friend" who had locked him out, and also knowing that people were beginning to stare at him, which was not unexpected, considering that he was wearing a hooded black cloak (with what was quite possibly blood in more than one place), was dragging an unconscious Imperial official behind him and was screaming into a com.

'Pyro, open that door right now or you will be on a one way trip back to Canthion,' he said.

The door opened within a few seconds of that threat, and the man named Pyro was standing at the door to take Lucifer's cloak, as well as his non-existent hat.

'Go home,' the bounty hunter said, walking past the prankster.

Lucifer threw back his hood to reveal blond hair and blue eyes. There was a long scar running from one ear, across his nose and ending just under his eye. He looked much older than his seventeen years, which suited him just fine. He was a little short, but that didn't make him any less intimidating.

He dragged the body of the unconscious Grand Moff over to a small holding cell. The man would be awake in a few hours, and hopefully he would be off their ship before then.

'I'll be awake when we get there,' said Lucifer, before walking to a door and going through, disappearing out of sight.

Later, Pyro walked into the cockpit and slumped in the pilot's chair, sighing.

A young girl with green hair and eyes was already in the co-pilot's chair and had gotten the ship ready for takeoff.

'Where were you?' she asked angrily.

'Whadda ya mean, where was I?' Pyro snapped.

'Pyro, we were supposed to take off half an hour ago,' she said, slightly annoyed.

'Lucifer wasn't back yet,' Pyro said grumpily.

'Oh,' the girl said.

'He hates me,' Pyro complained.

'Lucifer hates everyone,' she said.

They took off and were about to enter hyperspace when Pyro suddenly thought of something.

'Emerald, where's Quartz?' Pyro asked.

Emerald looked up, frowning.

'I haven't seen him in a while, but I don't think he disembarked on Corellia,' she said thoughtfully.

Suddenly, Pyro's flamethrower got picked up by something invisible and disappeared.

Pyro stared at the place where it had been.

'QUARTZ!' he screamed.

On the other side of the ship, Lucifer suddenly woke up and pulled out his blaster, looking for the threat. When he couldn't find it, he got up and went to listen at the door to the cockpit.

Back in the cockpit, a boy appeared, laughing and holding Pyro's flamethrower.

Pyro stood up to his full height, which was significantly larger than the boy's, and tried to grab his flamethrower. Unfortunately, Pyro's hand went right through the boy.

The kid laughed more.

'Quartz, give him back his flamethrower, we don't want a repeat of what happened last time he lost it,' Emerald said.

Quartz and Emerald both smiled at the memory, although Lucifer had reminded them of some of the stories they had heard about Darth Vader, as he had been so mad at the necessary stop on Sullust that they had taken while Pyro was waiting to be released from jail.

'That wasn't funny,' Pyro grumbled.

'No, that was funny Pyro, what wasn't funny was the way Lucifer almost killed you afterwards,' Quartz said.

'My throat didn't recover for days,' Pyro said, still grumbling.

'Yes, we know, you never shut up about it,' Emerald said.

Pyro, unable to think of a suitable comeback, somehow managed to shut up and get back to piloting the ship.

A little while later, he was getting bored, having entered hyperspace and set course for Yavin 4.

'So, let's get back to how much we hate Lucifer,' he said.

Lucifer, who was still listening from the next room, raised an eyebrow.

After listening to their conversation for a while, he was beginning to grow a little bit annoyed.

Apparently they hated him because he wouldn't go after the extremely high bounty for a Jedi Master named Yoda.

Of course, the reason for this was that Yoda was so elusive that a thousand competent bounty hunters might search every planet in both the known and unknown galaxy and never find him.

Even if Lucifer did find Yoda, he was one of the most powerful Jedi of all time. It was highly unlikely that Lucifer would ever manage to capture him.

Emerald eventually changed the topic of conversation to Lucifer's mental and emotional health.

Lucifer kept listening, even more displeased with them.

_I'll cut their pay later_, he thought.

Emerald sighed unhappily.

'Something wrong, Emerald?' asked Quartz.

Emerald looked up.

'Oh, it's nothing; I'm just worried about Lucifer.

Pyro laughed, for a long time.

'Excuse me; we are having a serious conversation here, Pyro, which means there is no room for you. Leave, please,' Quartz said, after Pyro had finished laughing.

Pyro frowned, but other than that, completely ignored Quartz and his rude comments.

'Worried about Lucifer? Why would you bother? Last time I checked, Lucifer was the person who beat Boba Fett in unarmed combat when he was only fourteen,' he said.

'I don't mean he's in physical danger,' Emerald said, talking slowly, as if Pyro was too stupid to understand what she was telling him. She wasn't too far off.

'I just mean that he never talks about anything with anyone and one day, that is going to all come out. A person can't just lock up like that all the time and not suffer for it.'

'What?' Pyro asked.

Emerald groaned and muttered a curse at Pyro's inferior intelligence levels.

'Shut up, bonehead, leave the thinking to those with brains,' she said.

Quartz nodded in agreement. Pyro, feeling quite unhappy and friendless, stayed quiet.

Three hours later, they exited Hyperspace. Right at that moment, Lucifer walked in. Pyro stared at him.

'How do you do that?' he asked, amazed that the younger man had woken up at exactly the right moment yet again.

Lucifer looked at him.

'I can do that because I'm smart, unlike certain people aboard this ship,' he said, with a pointed glare at Pyro.

'You're mean, Lucy,' complained Pyro, forgetting momentarily the lethality of calling Lucifer "Lucy".

Lucifer turned to look at Pyro, seriously contemplating carrying out his plan to burn out Pyro's eyes, set his hair on fire, drop him in boiling water, force him to eat Brussels sprouts and nail him to the side of the ship.

It only took a few seconds for him to make his decision.

Lucifer grabbed Pyro by his oversized hair and dragged him to the galley. A few seconds later, agonized screaming could be heard all over the ship.

Lucifer walked back in, followed by Pyro, who looked like he was about to throw up.

'You didn't have to do that,' Pyro complained, sounding like he had actually thrown up, 'I would have gotten the point if you had just poked my eyeballs out, you didn't have to force feed me Brussels sprouts,'

He fell into the pilot's seat.

Lucifer looked at him, exasperated by Pyro's ability to think, which was sadly lacking.

'Pyro, you are the ship's pilot. If you lost your sight, you wouldn't be much use to us, would you?' Lucifer said.

Pyro frowned and thought about that for a bit. Two standard time parts later, they were landing on Yavin Four.


	2. The Rebel Alliance

Once the ship landed on Yavin Four, Lucifer went off to hand over the Imperial Moff, leaving strict instructions that Pyro was not to be left alone under any circumstance. He said this while Pyro was happily incinerating the wings of some insectoid life form that he had found in the hangar and not listening to the conversation. Quartz and Emerald decided that Pyro would be all right for a while and they left, leaving some excuse about a map. Pyro was left with nothing to do, except wait for Lucifer, Emerald or Quartz to get back. So he went outside the ship and started setting random things on fire.

A girl walked in to the hangar and started staring at the _Hellrunner_.

_She has weird hair_, Pyro thought.

Then, an evil thought occurred to him.

Pyro snapped his fingers at her and watched the resulting chaos. He began laughing so much that he fell off the ship.

Lucifer walked into the hangar, obviously deep in thought. He glanced up at Pyro and Leia and kept walking. A second later, he froze and spun around.

There Pyro was, laughing at something that was funny, when his "best friend" walked over to him and grabbed him by his carefully spiked hair.

'Put it out,' Lucifer snarled.

'Oh, fine then, spoil sport,' Pyro grumbled dejectedly.

He stopped burning Leia's hair, but only because Lucifer made him.

_Okay, Lucy. The fire is gone. THAT MEANS YOU CAN LEAVE NOW. So I can reignite it. It's a great word, reignite. It reminds me of fire._ Thought Pyro, in what was quite possibly the most sense that his thoughts had ever made.

Lucifer spun Pyro around by his hair to face him.

"Oh, you were reading my mind again, weren't you, Lucy? I'm sorry. It was a joke. You're not supposed to be reading my mind anyway" Pyro squeaked.

"I can't help it, what with the way you broadcast your thoughts. Keep them to yourself if you don't want me to know," Lucifer snapped.

In his anger, he forgot to correct Pyro's nickname for him, thereby dooming himself to be subjected to it for all of eternity.

Leia stopped screaming and walked over to the bounty hunters, still a little traumatized by her recent misadventure.

Lucifer let go of Pyro's hair and bowed and kissed Leia's hand.

_Real gentleman, he is,_ thought Pyro._ Huh. As if. _

'I apologize for my companion's behavior, please forgive him, milady, as, having the intelligence of the average Mynock, he doesn't know any better,' Lucifer said.

Pyro opened his mouth to argue that point, but upon receiving an agonizing kick to the stomach, he felt differently about the idea.

'Well, you, at least seem civilized,' Leia said to Lucifer.

Lucifer straightened up and pushed Pyro to his knees in front of Leia.

'Punish him as you see fit,' he said.

'Ah, Lucy, do you know what you're doing?' Pyro asked fearfully.

'You burned her hair off; she should decide on whatever fate shall befall you,' Lucifer said coldly, choosing to ignore Pyro's choice of names for him.

Pyro whimpered and started shaking. He looked at the Leia who now had an evil smile on her face.

She grabbed him and dragged him off.

'Come on, crazy guy, I'm gonna introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is Chewbacca,' Leia said.

'Lucifer, help me,' Pyro screamed at his friend.

Lucifer smiled and waved. Once they were gone, he jumped on top of the ship at sat exactly where Pyro had been before Leia arrived.

Lucifer sighed. Pyro's stupidity had ruined Lucifer's plan to stay at the base until the next job popped up.

Now, they had almost no money, no jobs, and hardly any fuel and as soon as Princess Leia Organa told the rest of the Alliance Council what Pyro had done, they would be either forced to leave Yavin 4 or tried as criminals in the Alliance Courts.

Half an hour later, Emerald and Quartz got back from their expedition to the other side of the base. When they saw Lucifer sitting on the ship and Pyro missing, they froze and began formulating excuses.

'Where were you, anyway? Did I not tell you to stay here?' Lucifer asked from where he was sitting on top of his ship, with his eyes closed.

'Did you even open your eyes?' Quartz asked, trying to dodge the subject.

'No,' Lucifer replied.

Quartz frowned.

'My question still stands,' Lucifer said. 'Where were you?'

'We made a map of the base. I figured the Empire would be pleased,' Emerald said figuring that they might as well tell the truth.

Lucifer nodded.

'A third of both of your payrolls will be docked for the next month. Be glad it isn't three quarters,' Lucifer droned.

Emerald nodded and looked around.

'Where's Pyro?' she asked.

'He set an Alliance Leader on fire, which is why we have to leave fairly soon,' Lucifer said.

Emerald sighed.

'Are we going to get him back, or should we just leave?' she asked.

'Chewbacca sounds a lot like a Wookiee name, doesn't it? Lucifer asked.

'Okay then, let's go, I'm sure we can find a new pilot somewhere,' said Quartz.

They were interrupted when a barely conscious Pyro was dragged into the room by a Wookiee, followed by a girl wearing a wig and a scruffy-looking man.

'He's learned his lesson,' Leia said.

The Wookiee dumped Pyro on the ground outside the ship and the three left.

Quartz ran over to Pyro and tried to help him up.

'No, Quartz,' Lucifer said.

'Lucifer, how could you say something like that? He was attacked by a Wookiee!' Quartz asked, horrified.

'Will he live?' Lucifer asked impassively.

'Yeah, but he's hurt,' Quartz said.

'Well, you are the medic here, get him ready to pilot the ship by the time we leave,' Lucifer said.

He jumped off the top of the ship and started climbing the ramp.

'Wait, Lucifer'- Quartz started.

Lucifer paused.

'He brought this down on himself. Make sure you don't get blood all over my ship, we leave in an hour,' he said.

Quartz stared open-mouthed at Lucifer.

True to his word, Lucifer forced Pyro to get up one standard hour later.

'Where are we even going?' Pyro asked.

'Tatooine, Jabba will pay us a fortune for that map,' Lucifer said.

'If you really want to get lots of money for it then we should go to Coruscant,' Pyro said.

'We're not going to Coruscant,' Lucifer said.

'Okay, fine.' Pyro said.

He took off rather shakily.

A few minutes later Pyro tried again.

'It was just a suggestion, you should at least consider it,' he muttered.

'I did,' Lucifer lied.

The ship entered hyperspace and Pyro stumbled off to his room to fall back to sleep.


	3. Scars

Kaiden ran into a room where the dominant piece of furniture was a large, black dome.

_DADDY_! He screamed at his father's force presence.

The large, black dome started to open. Kaiden slipped through. Suddenly, he was in the air, and floating towards his father, who had his arms folded across his chest disapprovingly. He had his helmet on. Kaiden frowned.

_Daddy, you said in here was hat-off time,_ thought Kaiden.

'It's called a helmet, Kaiden,' said Vader, exasperated.

Kaiden frowned and pouted for a few seconds.

Vader smiled sadly under his mask. Kaiden reminded him so much of Luke, despite his hair, which was mysteriously brown.

One of the Kaminoan's favourite research topics over the last few years was how a clone of a blond haired person had been born with brown hair. Vader only wished that Kaiden would talk instead of just using the Force all the time.

Kaiden quickly forgot about the helmet, and frowned as he remembered why he had ran, screaming into his father's meditation chambers at four AM in the morning.

He realized that he was still floating. Kaiden tried to swim across the air to get to his father. Vader was trying not to laugh, as doing so would probably break his respirator.

He put his son down. Kaiden instantly ran over to him and grabbed his leg as if he would never let go.

'What's wrong, Kaiden?' asked Vader.

Kaiden started trembling a bit, and then he burst into tears.

_I can't say, daddy, can you read my mind so I don't have to say?_ Kaiden thought, sobbing.

Vader quickly found the source of his son's distress. Kaiden had had a nightmare. Vader frowned. There was something about the dream that seemed strange; though he couldn't think of any reason why this should be so. As Vader watched the dream replay in his son's head, he realized, horrified, what it was.

_The boy woke up, he didn't know why. Some instinct warned him of the danger. His father had left to settle a border dispute on Malastare, and he wasn't due back until tomorrow. The boy saw the man standing at the end of his bed as soon as he was awake. He opened his mouth to scream, "So the guards would know that he was in trouble"._

'_Don't bother, brat, your guards are dead,' the man said._

_The boy stared in shock, he could sense the man invading his mind, but only his father could do that. The man took out a gun and pointed it at him. The boy crawled under the covers of the bed. The man pulled them up and shot. A blue stun bolt hit the boy in the back of the head. The man grabbed him and crawled back through the air vents to the exit, and jumped into a waiting speeder. His partner hit the acceleration. _

_They only spoke once they were entering the docks, where their ship was._

_The pilot looked up at the man._

'_Did you get the Prince, Jade'" he asked._

'_Of course I did Fett, now hurry, we shouldn't keep these clients waiting,' Jade snapped._

Lucifer was awakened from his dream by a sudden burst of pain from his face.

He winced as he felt that brat of a Prince shout into the Force again instead of talking out loud like an ordinary person. It was almost as if he didn't know how to speak, yet any clone of Luke Vader should be able to do that, unless there had been genetic tampering, of course, which wasn't really all that unlikely, considering Palpatine's bright personality.

The brat could at least have the courtesy to be quiet, though.

Being heard by all force-sensitive from halfway across the galaxy was never a good thing, despite what the Prince seemed to think.

Slowly, Lucifer became aware of a banging on the door, and realized that he must have slept for quite some time.

He opened it to find Emerald with red, bloodied knuckles from hitting the door and Pyro with a battering ram that had been set on fire.

'What is going on out here?" Lucifer said in a dangerous voice.

'Well, since you've been in there for a few hours longer than you usually spend anywhere without a reason, we thought something must have happened to you. So I banged on the door for a while until Pyro came along with his battering ram and started bashing the door with it,' Emerald said.

'Hey Luke, are you all right?' Pyro asked nervously.

Lucifer froze.

'What did you call me?' he asked, startled and accidentally forgetting to sound cold and merciless.

'I called you Luke,' Pyro said, now starting to grow afraid of what the younger man might do if he objected.

Lucifer stared at him for a long time, obviously thinking about something. The scar on his face hat had never healed, even after five years, seemed darker and more obvious than usual. Pyro and Emerald, knowing that it was probably a life or death matter (at least, to Lucifer), stayed silent.

'Why?' Lucifer finally asked.

'Well, you don't really seem to like the name "Lucy", and "Lucifer" is too long, so I thought maybe "Luke" because it is a nice name and it's short,' Pyro whimpered fearfully.

Lucifer stared at him again.

'Don't call me that,' he said as he walked away.

When they were sure that he was gone, Pyro and Emerald looked at each other.

Emerald frowned.

'What was that about?' she wondered out loud.

"You're expecting me to know? The first time I called him "Lucy", all he did was Death Glare at me. Now I call him "Luke" which is a nice name, and it isn't a girl's name. What does he do? He talks to me! That is the Lucifer equivalent of chucking a spaz and going after me with a butcher's knife. Now that is messed up,' Pyro said.

'Yeah…,' agreed Emerald, lost in thought.

A few seconds later, Pyro got sick of waiting for a proper response and started to walk away.

'Pyro, when did you get a battering ram anyway?' Emerald asked.

'Ah, you know, some store somewhere. It was a fifty percent off sale,' Pyro told her.

Pyro walked into the cabin when suddenly, a vibroblade nicked the front of his shirt and cut his stomach.

'Ow!' he yelled.

Quartz walked in the opposite door and also got cut.

Pyro and Quartz looked at each other and ran, screaming, in opposite directions.

Lucifer looked up from his weapons practice to see if they were gone. Once he was satisfied that he was alone, he snuck back into the cockpit, once again locking the door behind him.

"You'd think that it would be noisier in here than the cabin," he muttered as he fell back to sleep in the pilot's seat.

Behind him, the wall shimmered for a second, before a small, pale figure came through it slowly.

Quartz quietly walked over to the captain and went through his pockets, finding what he was after in less than a minute.

As the fifteen year old walked back through the wall, he turned and whispered something.

"Sorry, captain, but there is no such thing as loyalty in this business,"

After he was gone, Lucifer opened the eye that wasn't scarred.

"Traitor…"


	4. Traitor

Kaiden didn't understand why his father was so angry. After the first dream, Darth Vader had taken Kaiden back to his room and left, after comforting him, and hadn't been seen since.

Kaiden knew it was something to do with his dream, but he couldn't understand what was so important that his father hadn't told him.

Even when Kaiden had dreamt again of the boy the next night, Vader had not opened the door.

After two nights of not much sleep, Kaiden was tired. He went to bed the second the Coruscanti sun disappeared over the horizon, hoping desperately that the Force would allow him to rest.

_Two boys were running down a long corridor, with fear evident on their faces. A door opened as they walk past, and a man walked out holding a long, blood soaked whip. He looked down at the boys, surprised._

'_Trying to escape, are you? Well, I'll show you what happens to little brats that try to escape,' he said, before laughing and cracking the whip._

_The younger boy moved in front of the older one._

'_Pyro, run,' he yelled. 'Tell the others to get ready, I'll catch up, but if I'm not there in ten minutes, go.'_

_The older boy hesitated. The younger one glared at him. A huge gust of wind picked the older boy up and put him down a few metres away. He took one last look back, and then ran._

Kaiden woke up and sighed. The dream was nothing compared to the one from the previous night, when he had seen the boy being tortured and half killed, just to see how much he could take before he collapsed. It did seem to take an extraordinary time for the pain to get to the boy, though, which was probably a result of whatever else had happened to him, even though he couldn't have been any older than Kaiden.

Kaiden wondered what was going to happen to the boy. The guy who attacked him had a whip, and Kaiden had seen what a whip could do to people through the previous night's dream.

Kaiden thought for a second that the Emperor might be sending the dreams to test him somehow, and maybe his father was injured from fighting him again.

Then his father walked into his room, completely unharmed, and looked at Kaiden expectantly.

_Do you want to see the dream again?_ Kaiden thought.

Vader nodded.

Kaiden sighed and lowered his mental shields.

Emperor Palpatine was quite possibly in the best mood that he had been in for five years. So, when Lord Vader came to speak with him about the cloned brat having nightmares, he was actually willing to listen.

When Vader described the dream to him, however, his bright mood was soon spoiled.

"I will look into it, Lord Vader," Palpatine promised, smiling. He meant it, too. He just didn't believe that Lord Vader would agree with his methods.

"Thank you, my Master," Vader said. He bowed and turned to leave.

"Lord Vader?" The Emperor called after him.

"Yes, Master?" Vader answered, turning around.

"Do you know anything of the project that I have started on Canthion?" he asked.

"Not much, Master," Vader said, clearly wondering where Palpatine was going with this sudden question.

"What do you know?" Palpatine asked.

"The project was begun just after the formation of the Empire and it was researching ways to speed up the human evolution process. Children were gathered from orphanages and sent to the planet Canthion, where experiments were performed on them. About five years ago, almost two hundred children escaped and are now roaming the galaxy by themselves," Vader recited mechanically.

It was obvious from his tone that he did not agree with what had been done to the children.

"Good. Now, about fifty of the escapees have been recaptured or killed, but there are still more than hundred and fifty of them at large. They are dangerous and most are mentally unstable. I am putting you in charge of finding them, and if possible, recapturing. If not, just kill them," The Emperor said.

Vader bowed.

"As you wish, my master, he said.

Palpatine got off his throne to give Vader a datapad.

"You are dismissed," he said.

Vader bowed once more and left. Palpatine cackled maliciously.

Pyro and Emerald glanced up from their game of Dejarik to see Lucifer walking across the room.

"Lucy, how are you?" Pyro greeted his Captain.

Lucifer looked at Pyro, causing him to back away quickly.

Emerald said nothing.

Pyro looked at Quartz's door, which had remained locked for the past few hours and which right now appeared to be the misfortunate cause of Lucifer's all too apparent anger.

Lucifer resumed walking towards the door as soon as he saw that Pyro wasn't going to say anything else that was unbelievably stupid. Quartz happened to walk out of the room at that exact moment and when he saw Lucifer, he tried to run, though how he was planning to get anywhere by running past people on a spaceship with small rooms and narrow hallways, no one knew.

Lucifer grabbed Quartz as the smaller boy ran past, threw him against the wall and began to choke him.

Emerald stood up, knocking the Dejarik board over. Pyro looked at it and whimpered sadly.

"Lucifer," she shouted, enraged.

Lucifer ignored her and started going through Quartz's pockets until he found a datapad, which he threw to Pyro.

After Pyro, who hadn't quite managed to catch the datapad, had picked it up off the floor, he turned it on and read it.

Pyro looked at Quartz with an expression of rage on his face that had previously been associated with only Lucifer.

"You traitorous, ungrateful little bastard," Pyro snarled.

Suddenly, they all felt the ship come out of Hyperspace.

Quartz grinned and suddenly became transparent. He disappeared through the wall. Lucifer cursed and ran into Quartz's room to find a blaster pointed at him.

"Why bother killing me, Lucy, I already told them," said Quartz in a superior tone that Lucifer had never heard the smaller boy use before.

"Maybe I won't kill you, you're exactly the same as all the rest of us, they'll do it for me," he said.

"They aren't gonna kill you, they'll just take us back to Canthion, with all the rest of them."

"We spent six years trying to leave, why do you want to go back?" Lucifer asked.

"I'm not going back, I told the Empire the locations of Kieran and his entire gang, Harrison, Aaron… the list goes on and on. I must have saved them years of searching, they wouldn't send me back there," Quartz answered.

"Quartz, before tonight, I didn't believe anyone could be that stupid, not even Pyro," Lucifer said.

The aforementioned Pyromaniac's voice came over the intercom.

"Lucifer, they're here, what the kreth am I supposed to do, oh, Force, is that the _Executor_? We're all gonna die, we're all gonna die!"


	5. Escapes

"_Pyro, run," Luke yelled. "Tell the others to get ready, I'll catch up, but if I'm not there in ten minutes, go."_

_Pyro hesitated. Luke glared at him. A huge gust of wind picked the older boy up and put him down a few metres away. He took one last look back, and then ran._

_Luke turned back to the man, who cracked his whip again, laughing maniacally._

_Suddenly, the man lashed out with it, catching Luke across the face._

_Luke cried out in pain. The blow had almost taken his eye out, and he could feel his own blood running down his face. He fell to his knees and pressed his dirt covered hands to his face, only succeeding in making the wound worse_

_The man cracked the whip again and Luke somehow found the strength to glance up. As the whip sped towards his face, Luke reached out instinctively with the force and he tore the whip from the man's hand. _

_It landed on the ground a few metres away. Luke punched the man's arm hard enough to make his shoulder joint pop out of place. The man bellowed in pain._

"_I'm gonna hurt you for that, boy," he growled._

_Luke jumped back as the man went for his throat with a knife that he had pulled from his belt. The man overbalanced and fell forward, dropping the knife, which Luke kicked away. Luke ran over and kicked the man in the stomach. The man grabbed Luke's_ _leg and wrenched it. _

_Luke hissed as he felt the bone snap, then he fell over. The man got up and wiped Luke's blood off his arm. Luke's face and the front of his grimy shirt were stained red. Luke looked around, searching for something to defend himself with. He knew that the man was going to kill him if he couldn't win this fight. _

_The man got up to taunt him. Luke could barely hear the words, let alone comprehend their meaning._

"_Go to Hell," Luke said, before spitting out some blood that had run into his mouth. _

_Behind the man, the knife began to move. The man laughed cruelly._

_Luke stretched out his hand and the knife jumped into it. He plunged it into the man's throat. Blood poured out and the man made a nasty gurgling sound. Blood began to bubble out of his mouth and he fell._

_Luke got up. He started limping down the hall, aware that he was in shock and was probably about to fall unconscious from blood loss. He tried to go a little faster and had to stifle a cry at the pain. He kept going at the increased pace for a few metres before the pain grew so intense that he really did cry out, before he collapsed._

Kaiden woke up, to see a man standing at the foot of his bed. He opened his mouth to scream.

'Don't bother, brat, your guards are dead,'

Lucifer looked away in momentary distraction; internally horrified by the announcement.

_He said the Executor, Vader is here, no, no, no, please no_.

Quartz pulled the trigger and walked out the door without looking back.

That was his last mistake.

Just as Quartz got to the escape pod, he was lifted up in the air by his throat.

"Lucifer, maybe you should let me go and go see if you can stop Pyro from committing suicide," Quartz stammered.

"Oh, don't worry, he won't," said a voice that did not belong to Lucifer.

Quartz's eyes widened and he started to panic.

"Let go, you're on my side!" he said.

The agreement was that we would hand over the other three, not that I would help you betray them and then be left for dead," the voice said. Quartz started to turn transparent, but the person standing behind him knocked him out and threw him in the escape pod.

Lucifer watched the pod jettison and pressed the button to send the ship into hyperspace.

Darth Vader watched from the bridge as the ship escapes. He sighed and clenched his fist.

Everyone looked away and winced at the sickening crack that came from the general direction of Admiral Ozzel's neck.

Captain Piett looked at his screen, which showed the escape pod floating around aimlessly.

As Vader started to walk away, Piett got up and somehow picked up the courage to actually go and _speak_ with Lord Vader.

"Milord, the escape pod was jettisoned before the ship went back into hyperspace," Piett said, speaking noticeably faster than he would normally.

"Well, go and retrieve it then," Vader snapped.

"Uh, yes, milord," Piett stammered.

Quartz woke up in unfamiliar surroundings and was instantly on his guard.

He thought back to the last thing that had happened to him.

"That double crossing little freak," he muttered angrily to himself.

He stuck his head through the door and looked around for the guards. They were standing a few metres away, not looking at Quartz.

He smiled and crossed over to the next cell, getting closer to the guards.

Before he left, he saw one of the shortest kids that he had ever met in his life in the cell with him.

The kid looked up at Quartz, and it wasn't scared as Quartz had expected. That could only mean that it was another little brat from Canthion.

Quartz thought of killing the kid, but he decided against it for now. The brat might be of use to him.

"Get up," Quartz snarled at the kid.

The kid got up and started talking.

"Hi, I'm Lachlan, I'm from Canthion too, you can tell, can't you? I'm thirteen how old are you?" the kid said.

"What power do you have, the ability to talk your opponents to death?" Quartz asked him sarcastically.

"You're mean, if you must know, I can move really fast,' Lachlan said.

"Whatever," Quartz said in a bored tone.

He walked out of the cell and stuck his transparent hand through the guard's armor.

"Huh, what the-" the storm trooper had time to say before Quartz's hand became solid and his heart was torn out through his spine.

The other trooper took aim at Quartz and fired.

Quartz turned transparent and the shots went through him to hit the lock on Lachlan's cell door, causing it to open.

Suddenly, the trooper was on the floor in a pool of his own blood.

Quartz blinked in surprise and stared at Lachlan, who had mysteriously appeared in front of him.

"Told you that I'm fast," it said, smiling.

Quartz blinked and stared at it.

Now he was glad that he hadn't tried to kill Lachlan. Quartz would never have been able to lay a hand on it.

The two of them set out to find the hangar bay. Quartz wondered what he was going to do with Lachlan. He couldn't leave it here, as it would just follow him, he couldn't kill it, as the brat could easily overpower him.

Quartz decided that he would just let it tag along for now, as it might be a useful bargaining chip later.

Unknown to either of them, a shadow followed them quietly.

Lucifer limped into Quartz's old room to look for the medical supplies. His leg was beginning to grow sore where Quartz had shot it.

Pyro found him there, trying to stitch his own leg up.

Pyro wasn't really as stupid as he made out, in fact, he could have made billions as an actor. He knew that his friend needed help and if asked, Lucifer would just get up and walk away. Well, he would get up and limp away, anyway.

So Pyro didn't ask before he went to help and Lucifer didn't push him away.

After his leg was fixed, Lucifer looked up at Pyro and hesitated.

'Pyro?' he said uncertainly.

'Yeah, what is it, Lukie?' Pyro answered, smiling.

"Uh… um, thanks," Lucifer said.

It may have been the first time that Lucifer said that to anyone in over five years, but Pyro had just enough sense not to make a big deal out of it.

"Aw, don't worry Lukie, no big deal," Pyro laughed.

"Don't call me that, idiot, Emerald might be listening," Lucifer grumbled.


	6. Important AN

IMPORTANT NOTICE!

My laptop is mostly fixed by now, those of you who read the other note. The USB ports and Microsoft Word are working again. The Internet worked for a few hours and then broke again. I rewrote every chapter, but the difference is most noticable in Chapter Two. It is now no longer in 1st Person and it doesn't switch between different people's POV's every paragraph or so. Thank you, Phantom-Jedi1 for mentioning that.

See, all you other people? If you review, I fix stuff.

I left this on my profile, but... I am not stalking DaKirby. He is a friend in the real world. He's reviewed all of my chapters, as well, in case no one noticed.

Thank-you to all my reviewers: Vila Restal, Holyfanfictionbatman, Starsteller, ILDV, Padme-is-an-Angel, DaKirby, Phantom-Jedi1.

Anyway, I'll go and do my homework now, then I'll finish Chapter Six. Don't get too excited, though. It's mostly just a filler.

DaKirby, you're mean. Maybe I'll stop being your friend if you do that again. Ah, to Hell with the "maybe". Anyone who reads his review for this A/N will know what I mean. He actually reported me.

ILDV, thanks. Sorry I didn't say something earlier.


	7. Wanted

**A/N: I'm back. Just in time for Christmas. Hey, do you want to know what the best presents I could ask for would be? A review, they make me very happy. Happy DemonChild equals quick updating DemonChild. I'm not complaining, though. You guys are really great with the whole reviewing thing. The other thing I need is a Beta Reader. As you may be able to tell from the rapidly deteriorating state of my writing, this is quite desperate.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any recognizable characters. **

* * *

The Hellrunner was allowed to land at Jabba the Hutt's Palace after a ridiculous amount of negotiating. 

Lucifer and Pyro walked in to make the deal with Jabba.

Pyro ended up having to set the place on fire after an embarrassing incident caused by Jabba's realization of the fact that Lucifer was using "Jedi Mind Tricks" to get a better deal.

Eventually, the two walked out, arguably unhurt and with twenty thousand credits more than they went in with. When they got back to the ship, Pyro walked to the cockpit to fly to Nar Shaddaa for fuel and supplies.

'I'll be awake when we get there,' said Lucifer.

Pyro threw a fireball at him.

* * *

Quartz had never been a good pilot. In fact, he had never flown a ship in his entire sixteen years of existence. Lachlan had exactly the same problem. 

So, the two were faced with a rather unfortunate situation.

Even more unfortunate was a certain shadow that had followed them.

This shadow, which went by Mara Jade, had been sent along to supervise Lord Vader. It was not the first time. However, it was the first occasion on which Jade was seriously considering disobedience. She knew exactly who these two were.

Lachlan Selinare was a thirteen year old sociopath. Even when he wasn't killing people for the heck of it, he was as annoying as Hell.

Alan "Quartz" Myoki, on the other hand, could probably count the number of people he had murdered in the last month or so on two hands, possibly just one. His daily crimes were of far less magnitude.

Jade had killed only two people during the last three months. They had both been relatively minor criminals, traders of illegal drugs with no skills in any form of fighting.

She was seriously out of practice.

Lachlan heard the sound of the blaster being pulled from its holster. Quartz would have too, if he hadn't been so intent on finding a way through their current dilemma.

Lachlan was fast on his feet, but he had never fought the Emperor's hand. Mara Jade had the Force to aid her. She would not fail.

She managed two shots, but only one reached its intended target. Then, Mara Jade felt a rush of cold air. She did realize what hit her before she died; there weren't all that many possibilities.

* * *

Lord Vader was not a patient man. One whole standard week had elapsed since Jabba the Hutt had contacted the Empire, claiming to have knowledge on two very important issues. He evidently did not realize just how close Vader was to attacking Jabba's pathetic fortress and torturing the location of the Rebel Base out of him. 

Worse still for Jabba, it would be perfectly legal.

Another day passed before a deal was negotiated. Jabba agreed to throw in the names and faces of a pair of experiments who had apparently been the ones to organize the breakout on Canthion five years ago and two others whom often traveled with them. Vader recognized one of them as the little backstabber that had betrayed fifty of his fellow escapees, resulting in the recapture of almost forty of them.

That one was already in captivity, and he could only assume that the ship that had fled the scene when the boy was retrieved had contained the other three; Lucifer, Pyro and Emerald.

Of the three left at large, the only one who had actually gained something useful from the experiments was Pyro.

Lucifer claimed to have telekinesis, but Vader had sensed his Force abilities during the few seconds before the bounty hunter's ship had entered Hyperspace.

Lucifer's only actual mutation was the pair of wings on his back, which he was incapable of using to fly due to the fact that the rest of his body was still human and the wings were simply too small in proportion to the rest of his body. However, he could still use them for other purposes, an example of this being Lucifer's habit of using them to knock opponents off their feet or, on several occasions, off the roofs of high-rise buildings.

Emerald's power was completely useless, unless she wanted people staring at her everywhere she went. Although the experiments conducted on her had not been failures in the truest sense of the word, the Amazing Power of Green Hair was not every child's dream come true.

Worse still, the hair was resistant to all forms of dye and attempts to have it replanted brown had failed. It would remain green forever and Emerald could do nothing about it.

Pyro, however, was an interesting case. He could both manipulate and create fire, at a very high level. He called himself a Pyromancer, which was probably true.

Vader found himself wondering if Pyro's powers extended to healing wounds caused by fire; such as Vader's own horrible burns. The possibility that this young man might hold the key to healing the damage done on Mustafar hit Vader like a ton of bricks.

Changing direction rapidly, Vader headed for the Com room. Calls would have to be made and the Dead or Alive status on Pyro's arrest warrant would have to be changed, and probably Lucifer's and Emerald's as well, to avoid Palpatine's suspicions.

* * *

Lucifer woke up to the sound of Pyro yelling at him that something very important was on the news. 

He got up and turned on the Holovid unit to see his own face staring back at him. It was quickly replaced by Pyro's, Emerald's and Quartz's faces. Lucifer swore in five languages.

Pyro finally managed to break into the room to see Lucifer watching the news.

'Oh. Here I was thinking you were asleep,' Pyro said. 'Switch to Channel 871.52, because that story they're running affects us,' he continued.

'Pyro, I really don't think it's more important than our faces being on the news. So shut up and let me listen,' Lucifer snapped back at him.

'Wait, what? Our faces are on the News? What channel is that?' Pyro asked.

'1145.8, now shut up and listen,' Lucifer told him.

Pyro tried to sit down on the bed, but settled for the floor after being shoved off.

As the story continued, Pyro grew steadily more anxious. The price on their heads had increased by almost ten thousand standard Imperial credits. Worse, they were wanted alive only.

'Lucifer, what are we going to do?' he asked, when he finished his panic attack.

'Pyro, no one actually knows the ship's name. All we have to do is disguise ourselves every time we leave the ship, which we do anyway half the time. In your case, and Emerald's, that probably just means dying your hair, or a wig for Emerald, and wearing coloured lenses. People will look for those distinctive features, and not pay much attention to the rest of our faces.

I might have to grow a beard and get a false tattoo as well, because my hair and eyes don't stand out so much. I have no idea what I'm going to do with my scar, though,' Lucifer said.

'Okay,' Pyro nodded.

_In one ear and out the other,_ Lucifer thought.

'Now, what was that other story that you mentioned before?' Lucifer asked.

'It isn't important, the Rebel Alliance just got destroyed by the Empire, that's all,' Pyro said.

Lucifer stared at Pyro.

'You have a very strange idea of how important things are,' he commented.

Before Pyro could reply, Emerald ran into the room.

'Lucifer, Pyro, there you are! The Rebel Alliance was just destroyed because of the information that we gave Jabba!' she said loudly.

Lucifer just looked at her.

Pyro stared at Emerald in shock.

'Because of the info we gave them?' he said, shocked.

The other two stared at Pyro.

'What did you think they would do with it?' Lucifer asked after a short pause.

Pyro thought about the question. Lucifer turned to address Emerald.

'Were there survivors?' he asked.

'Of course there were. A substantial reward is being offered,' Emerald said.

'Run a search over the Holonet or something. Just find a lead for us to use,' Lucifer said.

He walked out the door.

'Oh, now I get it,' Pyro said.

Emerald shook her head and followed Lucifer out the door.

**A/N: Yeah, I killed off Quartz and Mara Jade. I didn't like Quartz anyway, and he was going out right from the beginning. And I just couldn't have Mara appear in the story and then just disapear for no reason, but she had nothing else to do. So, I killed her. I'm sorry. Really. She's actually my second favourite character. **

**If anyone really cares about why Luke's wings don't work, go to wikipedia and search Bird Wing Anatomy. It should give you about ten pages. Find a useful one and read that. I suppose you could Google it, but I used Wikipedia. **

**Remember what I said about a Beta Reader. Volunteers? Hello?... **

**I have to get up in an hour, so I'll shut up and go to sleep now.**


	8. Collision

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, and I have enough to deal with without people sueing me, so please just sue someone else instead. Sue the people who don't review, how about that?**

**A/N: Hey, guess what? You guys are getting two updates this month! No, not tonight. The second one will come on the 25th, my birthday. Probably in the last couple of hours of my birthday, but, still on my birthday. Or birthnight, maybe. And, yes, I am fully aware that I have a terrible sense of humour.**

**Okay, I know this chapter jumps around a lot, but that's just how it turned out. Also, I apologize for the shortness of this chapter. I just couldn't think of anything else to put in it. Before someone tells me to take something from the next chapter, that would spoil the cliffie, so I can't. Befaore someone screams at me for putting in a cliffie... (Runs and hides away from readers carrying flaming torches and pitchforks).**

* * *

After many hours of searching, Emerald finally managed to contact Talon Karrde, an information broker who apparently knew something about the elusive X-Wings that had escaped Yavin. Unfortunately, he required them to actually pay him in person, rather than having to deal with Lucifer's fake accounts and other such tricks, which meant that the young bounty hunters had to take a detour to Myrkr. A detour which would take them past Canthion, by strange coincidence.

* * *

Kaiden woke up as soon as the disturbance he could feel in the Force started to approach him. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, still half asleep. Gradually he became aware of the disturbance. It wasn't really a disturbance, though. It was more like a hole.

Kaiden shot out of bed and looked around for his lightsaber. It was only for practice and it couldn't actually hurt anyone, but a Bounty Hunter would probably run off screaming anyway. Well, maybe.

The young Prince could feel the disturbance growing closer with each passing second. Yet strangely he never thought to hit the alarm.

* * *

Prince Kaiden never slept in. He only differed from his regular morning routine on days when school was not in session and his father was home. That was why, on this particular bright, sunny morning, Chief of Staff Elliot MacPherson knew something was wrong.

Upon entering the young Prince's room to enquire as to the meaning of the delay, his suspicions were instantly confirmed. Elliot pulled out his radio and dropped it, panicking. It smashed into pieces on the floor.

He turned and fled the room, screaming bloody murder at the air. A curious young guard watched the screaming man run past and blinked. He looked down the hall at the room the man had come out of and wondered. On one hand, that was the Prince's room, and _had_ been a number of reported break-ins by Bounty Hunters over the past few weeks.

On the other hand, if he left his post even for a second and it turned out to be nothing, he would lose his job… the Darth Vader way.

The curious young guard, whose name happened to be Russel, decided to take the risk. He checked the area for people who might see him leave his post and found no one. However, young Russel did find almost half a dozen cameras between where he was standing and the door to the Prince's room.

_Oh, stuff the job,_ Russell thought.

He walked as normally as he could towards the door and looked inside. What he saw made him go for his radio as well.

* * *

Two days after the destruction of the Rebel Alliance, Lucifer was watching the news again. Emerald was reading one of Quartz's old medical textbooks. She had decided to take over his job as the Medic and actually do something useful on the ship for once. Pyro had been knocked unconscious, tied up and left in a cupboard after Lucifer had gotten sick of him.

"This is Mason Mertanser, with Breaking News. High Prince Kaiden has been kidnapped! Was it the Alliance? Or was it one of Lord Vader's enemies? We go now to Eloise Trace, who is looking for opinions on the matter on the streets of Coruscant,"

Lucifer yawned and turned it off. He couldn't help but feel slightly guilty for not caring; however. He knew exactly what had happened to the little brat who also just happened to be biologically Lucifer's brother.

"_Why should I care, anyway? I am not that person anymore."_ Lucifer thought.

He didn't care about the child, other than mild sorrow that he was about to go through the same thing that had killed his older brother. Yes, that was it. The Prince's older brother who most certainly was Not Lucifer. An idiot couldn't have mistaken Lucifer for a Prince if he tried.

* * *

Kaiden woke up on a ship. He was surrounded by other children, most of them appearing to have been living in poverty. Kaiden sneered and looked away, bored. He did not have any wish to socialize with the snot-nosed brats of the dregs of society.

Unfortunately, the hole in the Force still surrounded Kaiden, cutting off his only means of contacting his father, as his comlink had undoubtedly been confiscated. Kaiden sat near a wall and tried to look regal and Princely. He did a very good job of it, too.

* * *

On a ship that in wandering through the galaxy in Hyperspace, with no plotted course or fixed destination, many bad things can happen, such as passing through the Hyperspace route being used by another ship at the exact same time as that ship is passing through that exact spot. However, because of the sheer improbability of this, it has never happened once in the entire known history of the Galaxy.

Unfortunately for Lucifer, and very fortunately for the young Prince Kaiden, the _Hellrunner_ just so happened to be passing through a particular area of space at the exact same trillionth of a second that the ship carrying Kaiden to Canthion went through that same area. A Jedi would have called it the Will of the Force. Lucifer called it every horrible word he could think of.

* * *

Emperor Palpatine cackled evilly when news arrived of Prince Vader's disappearance. Unfortunately for him, Lord Vader was in the Throne Room, waiting for a private audience when this happened.

* * *

**A/N: Review if you want me to have a happy birthday! Well, that makes it pretty easy for you. Why wouldn't you want me to have a happy birthday?**


	9. Injuries

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. As if anyone would believe I did.**

**A/N: Okay, so it's a bit late. It's still the 25th in some parts of the world, though. So not really late.**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed:**

**Vila Restal, Holyfanfictionbatman, Starstellar, ILDV, Padme-is-an-Angel, Dakirby, Phantom-Jedi1 and Darth Chunky.**

**Enjoy the story!**

* * *

Lucifer woke up in the ruins of his ship. He crawled out from under the bunk that had been thrown on top of him and looked around. He noticed that one corner of his cloak had caught fire and quickly tore it off, throwing it over to an already burnt area.

_I wonder what has become of Pyro and Emerald, _Lucifer thought.

Lucifer had a sudden recollection of tying and gagging Pyro before throwing him in a closet.

_Well, that's not good. He's probably suffocated by now._

Lucifer tried to stand but his left leg gave out. He muttered a curse and looked around for something to support him.

Lucifer's eyes landed on a sheet of metal that looked like it had torn away from the hull. He pulled his vibroblade of his belt and cut a thick strip of it off. After a few minutes it was good enough to serve as a walking staff.

Lucifer stood with the aid of the metal pole and walked towards the room that the closet had been in before the crash. He found that it had been partially welded to the roof, which had previously been the floor.

Lucifer cut it open with the vibroblade. Pyro tumbled out of it and landed on the floor with a thump. He was unconscious. Lucifer cursed again and attempted to drag the taller boy across the room.

Lucifer gave up after the first ten minutes, after his injured leg had collapsed four times and he had managed to move Pyro barely two metres.

Lucifer decided to look for Emerald. He walked into her cabin to find that even after being burnt to mere ashes, the room was still green. Emerald was also unconscious, slumped against the wall. Her head was bleeding and she had deep gashes on her arms and left leg. There seemed to be an awful amount of blood, though. Lucifer limped over to Emerald and turned her onto her back. There was a small metal object sticking out of her abdomen. Lucifer pulled it out and saw that it was part of a datapad. Luckily, it had not gone in very far.

Lucifer was almost panicking. The numbness his of own wounds was wearing off. Pain, shock, fear and exhaustion were beginning to affect him.

He took all of fifteen seconds to realize that he should be finding someway to stop the blood flow.

Lucifer found a piece of green material that might have once been a curtain and ripped it into strips, tying three strips around Emerald's midsection, one on her head and the rest on her arms and leg.

Lucifer realized in one murky corner of his mind that he should not move Emerald; especially seeing as moving her would consist of dragging her across the room.

His vision was swimming in front of his eyes. Lucifer suddenly felt dizzy. He sat down and leaned his head against the wall. Distantly Lucifer was aware that he might have a concussion and that he had to stay awake, but he was already too far gone to stay conscious.

* * *

Kaiden woke up. The young Prince immediately became aware of the fact that he wasn't in his bed, or probably even in the Palace, every part of him hurt and there was more than one person screaming their lungs out barely three metres from where he lay. Kaiden decided that he just simply did not want to know. He fell asleep within seconds.

* * *

Pyro woke up slowly. His head hurt, which probably meant that he had overslept again and Lucifer was in the process of killing his brain cells in the most painful way possible. 

_Honestly, he complains about me being too stupid to do anything and then he goes and makes me even stupider. Something is seriously wrong here,_ Pyro thought.

He sat up, putting a hand over his face to hopefully ward off any last "wake-up punches". Looking around, Pyro realized that Lucifer either wasn't actually hitting him, or else just hadn't bothered sticking around for Pyro to wake up.

After looking around again, he decided that it was definitely the former.

Pyro stood up too quickly and fell down again. Gritting his teeth against the pain in his head, which grew with each passing second, he slowly stood up, leaning heavily against the wall. After a few minutes of just standing there, the pain began to recede. Pyro walked out of the room and down the hallway.

* * *

Kaiden woke up again, this time because someone was poking him. He shoved the person away and heard a distant thump. 

'I think we made him angry,' said a small child, accidentally sounding extremely cute.

Kaiden was a Sith-in-Training. He _hated _cute.

Kaiden stood up, turned around and proceeded to whack the cute child over the head using the nearest moveable object he could find. The object in question just so happened to be another disgustingly cute child.

Kaiden turned again and walked away.

After a few minutes of fighting through thick foliage and carnivorous animals, which were weak enough for Kaiden to be able to persuade them to search elsewhere, thankfully, he concluded that this had not by any means been the best idea that he had ever had. Kaiden kept struggling through, and eventually he found that the plants were more spaced out and less likely to eat him than they had been before.

Looking up, he noticed that the sky had darkened considerably since he had set out. Kaiden kept walking, towards a bunch of very tall, thick plants that he might be able to shelter under.

* * *

Pyro took a step outside the ship, dragging two unconscious bodies with him, and dropped said bodies over the metre long drop to ground level, or one of them, at any rate. Emerald was just too injured for that. Pyro didn't have any kind of grudge against her, either. 

Lucifer woke up when his body hit the ground. He thought he felt his leg cracking again, too. He opened his eyes and then closed them again. He just didn't want to deal with having crashed his ship, broken his leg, almost killed both of his crewmembers and possibly been abducted. He was tired, confused, angry and more than a little bit scared. Not to mention in pain. Lucifer shut his eyes and tried to sleep.

His efforts were rendered futile when a person jumped from somewhere, probably wherever Lucifer had been drooped from, and landed right next to him, loudly.

'Aww, poor little Lucy, you must have skipped your nap time,'

Lucifer wasn't really all that good with telling voices apart if they were using that particular tone which is usually reserved for very small children or pets. However, there was only one person who would ever dare to say something like that to Lucifer.

_At least this is better than being abducted and held hostage, _Lucifer thought.

Pyro's next comment forced him to revise that thought.

'Looks like it might rain. There is a lot of dirt around here, don't you think? What with your broken leg, I don't think moving you would be a good idea. Not like we really have any shelter anyway,'

Lucifer opened his eyes again. Sure enough, the sky was dark and cloudy. Pyro grinned.

'Finally, you're awake. I was getting worried that I might have to keep talking to a couple of unconscious friends for hours, or even days. My sanity may not have survived, I mean, look at me, I was already saying things that I did not mean and was only saying because I was bored,' Pyro said quickly, trying to avoid having his pay cut or his smoking privileges revoked.

'I wasn't aware you had any sanity to begin with,' Lucifer said, too tired to try any harder.

* * *

Kaiden stopped moving as soon as he heard the voices. When he was sure that they hadn't realized he was there, he continued, as stealthily as possible. Considering that he was nine years old and had only ever lived on Coruscant, he did fairly well. 

"Fairly well" for Kaiden consisted of only breaking one stick and only causing a small amount of dry leaves to crack per step.

* * *

Pyro frowned at the tree line, which had suddenly begun to make a lot of noise. He picked up his flamethrower and aimed it at the plant. Lucifer woke up and looked at Pyro. 

'What are you doing?' He asked.

'I'm aiming my flamethrower at that big tree over there, because it keeps making noises,' Pyro said.

'It keeps swearing, too, in case you hadn't noticed, doing a very bad job of it, too.'

'Hey, whoever you are, come out, we know you're there,' Pyro yelled.

A young human slowly walked out of the bushes. As soon as he could see the flamethrower, he squeaked and ran back in.

'Should we go get him?' Pyro asked.

'Let him get stuck out in the floodwaters if he wants too,' Lucifer replied loudly, annoyed at having been woken yet again by Pyro's inability to capture a child.

The child ran back into the clearing and climbed half a tree before being knocked out by Pyro.

'How do you know there are going to be floodwaters?' Pyro asked.

'I don't, I was saying that to make him come back here,'

'What do we need him for?'

'He might send people after us if he makes it to a city or wherever he came from, we don't want that. He would be a good guide, that's two reasons, think of some more on your own.'

Pyro shrugged and tied the boy up. He decided to stand watch while the others were out. He didn't have much of a choice, really.

**

* * *

A/N: I don't really have anything to say, but it kinda looks boring to me if I don't put anything here, so, there is an A/N here. It doesn't say anything important, it's just here for the heck of it.**

**I'll update soon. I will not set a date, because I probably won't end up keeping it, but I WILL update. Promise.**


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